


Ho, Ho ... No.

by Draco_sollicitus



Series: 25 Days of Star Wars [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Retail, F/M, Jewish Poe Dameron, Jewish Rey, Modern AU, Pre-Relationship, Retail Holiday Season
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:22:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21687508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draco_sollicitus/pseuds/Draco_sollicitus
Summary: Working retail this time of year is stressful enough, with all the sales and crowds of tense, irate customers. Rey doesn't see why her supervisor, Hux, has to make it so much worse by forcing everyone to partake in compulsory Christmas activities, like the non-stop carols, and the wearing of bright red aprons and .... are thoseantlers?Rey and her best friend, Finn, are joined by the handsome, charismatic PhD candidate, Poe Dameron, as they try to survive the season at First Order, a massive chain of stores ruled by billionaire Snoke.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Rey
Series: 25 Days of Star Wars [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560265
Comments: 16
Kudos: 95





	Ho, Ho ... No.

**Author's Note:**

> Entry 4 of 25 Days of Star Wars!
> 
> A HUGE, massive, incredible thank you to [aimmyarrowshigh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aimmyarrowshigh/pseuds/aimmyarrowshigh) who reviewed and revised and vastly improved this fic! Thank you for the clever lines and the fixing and everything you do <3

_ “Outside the snow is calling and friends are calling yoo-hoo!” _

Rey groaned as she shouldered open the “Employees Only” door. Her co-worker and close friend, Finn, was a step or two behind her and heard her groan.

“What’s wrong, Peanut?”

“How long do we have to listen to this crap?” Rey sighed, heading to the lockers to secure her backpack. She didn’t relish the thought of Hux, the shift manager, going through it at the end of the night, but Rey hadn’t had time to head back to her crappy apartment after class today to put her textbooks away. 

“At least until New Year’s,” Finn said, grabbing an apron for himself and a vest for Rey. “You’re on the floor today, right?”

“Oh, great.” Rey took the vest and wrenched her arms through the holes. “I love re-stocking. Straightening is my life. I am enthused by scanning items until my eyes blur and the world becomes nothing but a series of beeps.”

“Did Hux give you another enthusiasm pep talk?”

“Mhm.” Rey smiled with a saccharine sweetness as she grabbed a scanner and checked it out under her employee code. “And I thought about ramming his clipboard up his ass and dangling him from the light fixtures by those stupid shoes he wears.”

The door swung open as Finn chuckled, and Rey froze, worried for a split second that it was Hux himself, come to scream at her some more for her less-than-genuine company spirit. But no, it wasn’t Hux. It was Poe.

Poe Dameron, the PhD candidate who was there to earn extra cash over the holidays. Poe Dameron, who everyone called “Doctor” jokingly, but without a hint of meanness. Poe Dameron, who once so gleefully mocked Armitage Hux over the intercom that the wannabe corporate stooge turned as red as his hair - but he didn’t get written up for it. Poe Dameron was untouchable, whether he was messing with their supervisor over the intercom, of studying at his register, flagrantly disregarding company policy at First Order.

Poe Dameron was  _ cool,  _ and Rey had a huge crush on him. Whatever. He probably didn’t even know her name.

Poe grabbed a vest after high-fiving Finn and studied the calendar above the employee computer used for inventory. “Looks like I’m with … Rey today!”

“But I’m Rey,” Rey said.

He turned around with a teasing grin. “I know.”

Rey ducked her head, refusing to blush, and shrugged before grabbing the clipboard. “Alright. Let’s see how quickly we can get the re-stocking done.” Poe followed her out with a scanner, and they split the store in two, Rey refusing to blink when their hands brushed together over the clipboard of the store layout. She spent the next forty-five minutes scanning appliances, pretending she wasn’t hot around the ears, and preparing for the mortification of…

“You climb up.” Poe eyed the sliding stacks in the storeroom warily. “I’m too big, I’ll pull that shit down.”

“Ugh.” Rey made a face. “Didn’t we used to have a ladder?”

“We did,” Poe gripped the stack and held it steady as Rey jumped up on the first shelf of it. She climbed slowly as Poe kept talking. “I think Hux used it to hang up the projector for that absurd Snoke phone conference where the Supreme Leader made us pledge our the rest of our lives and happiness to him.”

Rey laughed so hard she almost fell off the shelf; Poe grabbed her ankle, laughing too as he tried to steady her, “Whoa, careful there.”

“You call him Supreme Leader too?” Rey gripped the metal frame of the rolling rack and snorted as she reached to the back of the shelf for an inflatable Frosty the Snowman. “What a schmuck.”

“With terrible taste in clothing,” Poe agreed. “What was that, gold foil?”

She giggled as she climbed down, and Poe held his hand out to help her navigate the last two shelves, a jolt of contact that she pretended didn’t make her stomach flutter. 

“That is the most hideous thing I’ve ever seen.” Poe took the box out of her hands and stared at it. “You almost died for this?”

“Apparently we have a top, top, top customer who very much would like to purchase it!” Rey chirped in her best retail voice. Poe looked up at her in horror only to see her make a ridiculous pained face, and he laughed.

“Oy.”

Rey smiled and went to grab the inflatable reindeer from the much more manageable shelf three racks down. When they brought them upfront to the registers, Rey could see Finn talking with a very forced smile on his face to a grumpy customer.

“Ma’am, I don’t know what to tell you, but we do not sell hamburgers here.” Finn flashed Rey a  _ help me  _ look.

“How long until she asks for a manager?” Poe whispered to Rey, who giggled and continued stuffing the holds from inventory under the counter for pick-up. 

“I know you do,” the woman snapped, her purple, short hair bobbing with every word. “I’ve been in a First Order store before, young man!”

“Ma’am, we sell appliances, toys, and home goods. We don’t have have a cafe. Why would we sell hamburgers?”

“Why don’t you want me to have a hamburger?” She leaned over the counter, squinting down at him. “I --”

“Want to speak with your manager?” Rey whispered to Poe, already turning around to try and take some of the heat off of Finn.

“--want to speak with a manager!”

Finn smiled patiently, but it was as though the woman had summoned him: an oily, irritating voice appeared out of nowhere.

“Is there a problem?”

Armitage Hux strolled up, his black button down tucked into his khakis. He smiled simperingly at the woman, who sighed in apparent relief at the sight of him. “You must be the manager.”

“Why is she assuming he’s the manager?” Poe asked sarcastically in a voice not quite low enough to go unheard by everyone. 

Hux was flushed when he answered. “I am. How can I be of assistance?”

“Your employee-” She snarled over the counter, and then smiled back at Hux who was standing close to her. “-won’t tell me where your hamburgers are.”

“Our hamburgers?” Hux folded his hands behind his back. “I see. Well, ma’am, I wish my employee would have told you this, but we do not sell hamburgers at the First Order.”

“Well, that couldn’t have been too hard for him to say.” 

“It really couldn’t have,” Hux agreed, glowering at all three of them. “Perhaps I can show you something else in the store?”

“Well, I  _ did  _ want a new lawnmower,” she said as Hux led her away.

Poe rubbed a hand over his temple. “I have … such a headache.” He was loud enough that Hux and the woman turned back around before continuing to walk.

“Shh,” Rey dug an elbow into his ribs, her lips twitching anyway. She saw Finn duck his head, a sure sign he was laughing too. “I really hate people,” Rey decided. “Are you okay, Finn?”

“I’m okay. That was a ten minute conversation, if you can believe it.”

“I can believe it, buddy,” Poe laughed. 

“I didn’t get a chance to curl all this ribbon.” Finn groaned and opened a drawer, pulling out a tangle of green and red ribbons for presents. 

“I can help.” Rey held her hand out and grabbed a pair of scissors from behind the register. “I was due for a fifteen minute break anyway.”

“Me too.” Poe joined in, and they started to curl the ribbon as Jingle Bells blared aggressively overhead. 

They were mostly done with the ribbon when Hux stomped back towards them.

“Crap, I shouldn’t talk to him with sharp objects in my hand.” Poe dropped his scissors theatrically and popped his hands up on the counter, leaning over and smiling winningly at the huffing and puffing Hux. “May I help you today, sir?”

“Cut the crap, Dameron. Why aren’t you three wearing your Festive Holiday Gear?”

“Our … holiday gear?” Rey repeated blankly. They all exchanged knowing looks. “What  _ holiday gear _ are you-”

“Your holiday gear-” Hux snapped, pointing at Will Mitaka, who was walking by wearing … 

Antlers. He was wearing antlers, and a bell around his neck.

“Uh.” Poe coughed and shook his head. “I’m not wearing that.”

“You most certainly are,” Hux sniffed. He came around the registers, and Rey, Finn, and Poe all huddled together to avoid contact with him. Rey ignored the fact that she was now less than six inches away from Poe Dameron, who seemed to be radiating heat through the grey sweater he was wearing (and  _ wow,  _ was he wearing it). 

Hux kicked open a box Rey hadn’t noticed and pulled out other headbands - antlers, Christmas trees, and shiny stars - and held them out to Rey, Finn, and Poe. “Corporate sent these. You have to wear them until New Year’s Eve.”

“Ugh.” Finn held his hand out and glowered down at the antlers in his hand. “Really?”

“Really.” Hux simpered at him, half-sneering. “Unless you don’t want to keep your job.”

“You can’t make me wear this.” Rey shook her head when Hux extended the tinsel-shiny star headband at her. He sighed and handed her the Christmas tree one instead. “No. I’m not wearing any of them.”

Her face heated up unbearably, but she was more pissed than scared - sure, she needed this job, but she had other talents, other skills. She was already running the numbers in her head to decide if she had enough money to pay rent this month, if she could pay tuition at the same time, if she could muster up her dignity and ask Unkar if she could work and get paid under the table, because she  _ really wasn’t going to wear that.  _

“And why  _ not,  _ Rachel?” 

Rey stiffened at the sound of her full name, hating that Hux got to use it. But it should have been his first hint. “Because,” she said coldly. “I don’t celebrate Christmas. I’m Jewish.”

“So?” Hux sneered, and Rey considered throwing the register at him. “They aren’t about religion, Rachel. They’re for  _ winter  _ \- besides, the star headband is for Jewish Christmas.”

“Excuse me?” Rey’s eyebrows flew up her head. “Tell me you’re not being serious.”

Hux was definitely being serious. 

“She doesn’t have to wear that crap,” Poe said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “And I don’t have to, either. Or you, Finn.” Finn looked mildly relieved, and also worried, as he set his reindeer antlers down on the counter.

“That’s not quite true, Dameron,” Hux snapped, but Rey could swear he looked a little worried. “It’s a company policy.”

“Nah.” Poe shrugged. “It’s not. I didn’t get a memo. Did you guys?”

Rey and Finn shook their heads, and Poe leaned back and squinted down the front of the store. “Hey!” He shouted. “Connix! Did you get a memo about company policy changing?”

“No!” She shouted back, wrestling with a window display, an eight foot tall Santa that loomed over her petite frame.

“Nope.” Poe turned back to Hux, glaring with full force. “And as I recall, the First Order company policy only requires us to be well-groomed, in neutral colors, and covering any tattoos, so, if it isn’t in the company policy, you can’t make us wear it.”

“If it’s part of your uniform,” Hux began, but Rey snapped.

“No. No, you can _ not  _ make me wear that! I have to come in here, every day of my life and sell your total chazerei, and listen to your hideous music, and smile every time one of your customers waits for me to say  _ Merry Christmas.  _ You cannot add on these-” she grabbed Finn’s abandoned antlers and waved them around, agitated “-stupid, ridiculous things and expect me to keep smiling! I won’t do it!”

“Fine!” Hux snapped, grabbing the antlers out of her hands and turning bright red. “But when Mr. Snoke comes by, I hope he fires all of you!”

“I hope so too!” Rey half-shouted at Hux’s retreating back. “Then I can sue his wrinkly butt and yours for religious discrimination!”. She huffed and shook her hair out of her face, and turned to see Finn and Poe looking at her admirably. “What?” She asked, but Finn shook his head, grinning and waved at an approaching customer.

Rey and Poe headed back to the storeroom to continue pulling backstock, and Poe was quiet for the first few minutes, holding the racks still again as Rey climbed up. 

After she came down, cursing at a talking snowball, who was all too cheery as it chirped  _ Have a Holly Jolly Christmas! _ , Poe broke the silence between them.

“That was…” He cleared his throat. “It was great, you standing up to that guy.”

“You did too,” Rey mumbled, throwing the snowball into a nearby basket. She grabbed the rack and started to heave herself up it again, but Poe touched her forearm lightly and smiled kindly at her when she turned around.

“Yeah, but you … I could tell you’d been hating things around here for a while, so I’m impressed that you put your foot down and did it without … you know, stabbing him, or … dangling him from a light fixture with his clipboard hanging out of his ass.”

“You heard that.” Rey was sure her face was as red as the awful aprons Hux made them wear this time of year. 

“I heard that,” Poe admitted, leaning against the shelves and smiling at her. “But, it’s good to know I’m not alone here.”

“Alone?” Rey tilted her head, one foot still on a shelf.

“Yeah. I’m Jewish too, and I hate this kinda thing, with all the -” He gestured holding the mini Santa he was pulling for their re-stock. The Santa ho-ho-hoed disconsolately. “I was … sorta keeping it to myself because...everyone always assumes I’m an ass who hates Christmas whenever I try to talk about it, but,” Poe sighed and ruffled his curls, “I’ve worked a few retail jobs near this time of year, and bosses are always making us do all this stuff for Christmas, and calling it “the holidays” like they could even  _ say  _ when Chanukah is that year, and it’s awful.”

“The worst,” Rey agreed, smiling at him.

“Yeah. It’s good to know I’m not alone.” His eyes crinkled when he smiled, Rey realized. It was … nice. “I should start calling you Rey Maccabee.” 

“You big flatterer,” Rey said, pleased to be so complimented, even though she’d really been worried about being fired for a few seconds there. “...I am a little sad though.”

“Yeah?” Poe frowned. “Why’s that?”

“Because,” Rey sighed dramatically, beginning to climb back up. When Poe couldn’t see her face anymore, she finished her thought: “I’d hate to disappoint Mr. Snoke.”

Poe’s laughter was the best reward as she reached for a snowglobe on the eighth shelf up, her ears burning as she bit back a smile of her own.

At the end of the day, after they’d clocked out, and Rey was waiting outside for Finn to finish up his shift, she heard the doors slide open and closed behind her, with someone calling her name. She half-turned, expecting to see Hux running out, Hans-Gruber-style to murder her for insubordination, but it was Poe Dameron, tugging on his leather jacket and pulling a beanie over his curls.

“Hi,” Rey said faintly. 

“Hey.” Poe smiled, with those delightful eye crinkles again. “So, I was wondering…”

“Yeah?” Her stomach was fluttering again. Huh. Maybe she shouldn’t have had four sandwiches from the gas station at lunch.

“I was wondering if you wanted to come to my shul with me?” Poe shuffled back and forth. Embarrassed?

No. Shy.  _ Poe Dameron was being shy. And he was … asking her out? ...To  _ shul _? _

“It’s latke night on Thursday,” Poe added quickly, smiling even though he was still shuffling back and forth on his feet, his hands crammed in his pockets. “And my rabbi, Leia, will be there, and she, uh, let’s just say she’s the kinda person who would shout at their boss for being a putz.”

“A woman after my own heart,” Rey teased, her own cheeks bright pink by now. “And, um, yeah.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest in an effort to keep warm, and also to hide how shy she was feeling. “I’d like that.”

Poe’s smile stretched across his face magnificently, magnifying his adorable eye crinkles in a way that was honestly unfair. “You would?”

“I like latkes.” Rey shrugged in an effort to appear nonchalant. “But, I have an important question.”

“Go for it.”

“Are you… a sour cream man, or an applesauce man?” Rey pursed her lips and pretended to frown thoughtfully. “Answer carefully: latke night hangs in the balance.”

“Sour cream,” Poe answered, as if it were the only answer. 

Rey tsked disapprovingly. “Darn. I always said I couldn’t date a man who didn’t see the absolute perfection of applesauce and latkes.”

“I like applesauce too!” Poe spluttered, looking legitimately anxious, freezing slightly. “Seriously, I - I can eat applesauce on them-”

Rey laughed and shook her head. “I’m kidding Dameron,” she said, thrilled to be slightly cooler than Poe for once, “I’m kidding. Just … keep your nasty sour cream away from my latkes, okay?”

“Okay! Yes! Great!” Poe ducked his head, grinning broadly still. “I’ll, uh - we’re both on schedule that day until four, so would you, uh, wanna get dinner beforehand?”

“Dinner  _ and  _ latkes?” Rey raised her eyebrows. “You must know I like to eat.”

“I mighta noticed.” Poe smiled. “We can get some of the First Order’s fine hamburgers.”

They were interrupted when Finn tumbled out of the store, pretending to clutch his heart. 

“I’ve aged,” he declared. “A thousand years. No more, please. Tell me I don’t have to come back tomorrow, Peanut.”

“You don’t have to come back tomorrow,” Rey obliged, smiling with a private kind of happiness at Poe, who was still grinning. “But you are scheduled for Wednesday.” 

Finn half-wailed and collapsed on Rey’s shoulder, and she patted him on the back consolingly. 

“Thursday?” Poe confirmed, pulling a set of keys out of his pocket.

“Thursday,” Rey said, still patting Finn’s back.

Finn stopped wailing and looked up as Poe walked towards the parking lot. “What’s Thursday?” He asked, eyes narrowing. Rey snorted and pretended not to hear him, turning and walking up the block towards their apartment building. “Peanut? What’s Thursday?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 is their date!! Keep an eye out xoxox

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading, xoxo


End file.
